When our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa , they come across their own evolutionary cousin , Neanderthals , who made the journeying thousands of years before . Thanks to some prehistorical canoodling , many of us still carry around bits of Neanderthal DNA in our genome .
As premature studieshave suggested , one of the strangest relics of this legacy could really be certain genial health conditions . For the first meter , scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health ( NIHM ) have gathered grounds that supports the possibility thatNeanderthal genes affect the anatomical structure of modernistic - day human brains . Their research was put out this hebdomad in the journalScientific Reports .
Neanderthal factor var. probably clip up in humans somewhere in Eurasia between 47,000 and 65,000 year ago , the study says . In sum , the Neanderthal factor only account for about 2 pct of the intact non - African human genome . However , how it affects modern human beings is still not amply understood .
The researchers used MRI scans to measure out the physical structure of the mental capacity in 221 hoi polloi of European blood line from the NIMH Genetic Study of Schizophrenia . Those who were shown to have a higher concentration of Neanderthal - derived genic variation also had skull shape that more greatly resembled Neanderthals , especially in relation to the occipital and parietal clappers . This suggests that Neanderthal - derived gene are involve in the growth of the Einstein ’s visual organization in innovative - day man .
Fossilized skull of Neanderthals suggest they had a more prominent visual system than modern humanity . Understandably , this was passably useful for task such as tool - qualification and location objects , but the possibility goes that these Neanderthal - derived gene variants led to a visuospatial prowess that forced a trade wind - off for the part our social brainpower . This could be a potential link between Neanderthals and certain mental wellness condition in modern humans .
“ It ’s been proposed that Neanderthals depended on visual - spacial abilities and toolmaking , for selection , more so than on the social association and group activeness that typify the success of modern humans – and that Neanderthal brains evolved to preferentially support these visuospatial functions , ” Dr Michael Gregory Berman of the NIMH Section on Integrative Neuroimaging said in astatement . “Now we have direct neuroimaging evidence that such trade - offs may still be working in our brains . ”
